You should tap into your LinkedIn potential

You should tap into your LinkedIn potential

“Once you get over 500 it’s about you showing up on other people’s profiles when they go on to LinkedIn and about the reach you have when it comes to sharing information of value.”

While LinkedIn has long been used in the recruitment area either looking for talent or looking for jobs, Nankivell says social selling on LinkedIn now offers a different way of approaching business development. This is far removed from the days when the norm was cold calling someone after leafing through pages of dusty hardback business directories that went out of date as soon as they were printed.

“It’s new territory for many business people and that is OK,” she says. “I’m like a tour guide for the new territory.”

“Now you can find out a lot about a person before you even speak to them, and equally when you do make contact they can see the same about you.

“So instead of a cold call it’s a warm connection. That’s changed the game but you need to learn to do that effectively.

She adds: “The business world and sales professionals are transitioning into a new way of selling known as social selling. The objective is to leverage the connections you can make on LinkedIn and develop rapport with those connections ultimately with the goal to generate phone calls, face to face and Skype meetings, where you’re taking relationships from the online connection into the real world.

“It’s still got to happen in the real world but what you’re able to do is make use of all that potential and create more opportunities, that’s the main drive.”